You might know about Phare Ponleu Selpak for our circus shows in Battambang or for the arts education we offer to children, youth, and young adults in the community, but did you know we also offer our students a wide range of social support programs?
One of those social education programs is the life skills workshops offered at Phare Ponleu Selpak. Of course, most classes also feature arts integration like painting, drawing, drama, music, and more.
Photo credits: Juliette Deloron
The Goal of the Life Skills Workshops
The overarching objective of the life skills classes is to develop resilience in each student.
Even through different cultural frames, resilience is the universal human capacity that allows a person, group, or community to prevent, minimize, and overcome the damaging effects of life’s unforeseen events. Building strong resilience skills early in life empowers children, adolescents, and young adults to overcome traumas and deal with the stressful crises that each new generation faces.
Phare Ponleu Selpak supports young people from Battambang and neighboring provinces to develop the confidence to build a solid future, giving them the proper tools to plan and organize their lives over the long term and well after graduation. As a result, the life skills workshops provide each student with the ability to:
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- Cope with adversities
- Set personal goals
- Enhance their leadership skills
- Navigate group dynamics
- Increase teamwork
- Handle social pressure
- Work independently with confidence
Who the Life Skills Workshops Are for
The weekly life skills classes are required for all our students in the Performing Arts School and the Visual and Applied Arts School between the ages of 16 and 26 years old. The content and activities of each class are adjusted to the age of the given participants.
Instead of tests and scores, each student is graded according to attendance, participation, peer feedback, and active learning.
What the Life Skill Workshops Teach to Students
So, what exactly falls under the category of “life skills?” A lot of things, actually.
Here’s just a few of the topics covered in the life skills workshops at Phare Ponleu Selpak:
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- Dreams, plans, and establishing SMART goals
- Identifying personal core values
- Time management and scheduling
- Physical health and well-being
- The importance of exercise and good nutrition
- Mental health and mindfulness
- Budgeting, saving, and financial planning
- Stress management
- Fundamentals of leadership
- Critical thinking and decision making
- Verbal and non-verbal communication
- Empathic listening
- Reading comprehension
- Adaptability and flexibility
- How to self-study
- Handling peer pressure and bullying
- Self-acceptance and worthiness
- Discrimination, inclusion, and differences
- Healthy body image and gender identity
- Interpersonal skills
- Trust-building and networking
- CV preparation and job interview training
- Cooperation and teamwork
- Prudent social media usage
- Creative thinking
- Public speaking
As you can see, Phare students learn quite a lot of life skills before they graduate! No matter whether they become artists, musicians, performers, teachers, or other professionals, they enter the working world with confidence, leadership, and a sense of responsibility.
Conclusion
The life skills classes strengthen the soft-skills and resilience of each student at Phare Ponleu Selpak – no matter their chosen field of art or level of formal education – so that they’re ready to take on life’s biggest challenges. We hope these workshops begin a work in progress that will bear fruit throughout the course of a lifetime.
Help Phare Ponleu Selpak reach more youth and young adults in Cambodia with social support and community outreach projects. Your recurring donation makes projects these life skills workshops possible.
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